In contemporary, audience are having different cinematic experience and that is due to some new enterprising entrants who are coming up with fresh ideas and heart-touching subjects and Hari Mehrotra is one such Bollywood filmmaker, who has produced totally unusual kind of film titled Viraam. The title Viraam (The end of a Journey) itself indicates that the movie is a surprise packet, which is releasing shortly.

Though Viraam is Mehrotra’s first production, but he is not a freshener in the industry as his wife Rama Mehrotra had previously produced a movie Future To Bright Hai Ji, released in 2012, in which he was a creative director.

Coming back to Viraam, the film is a different kind of love story between an elderly man and a young girl, based on trust and deceit played by the lead pair Narendra N Jha and Urmila Mahanta.

‘Viraam is your first production so did you find any hurdle while making it? Not at all. As you know my wife has already made a film Future To Bright Hai Ji, so it was easy for me to tackle production activities.

Moreover he adds ‘I come from a different business background and was associated with Bollywood since many years in one or the other way Mehrotra reveals’.

Furthermore, Mehrotra has also played a small character in K. Asif’s dream project Love and God which was completed, produced and directed by K C Bokadia starring lt. Sanjeev Kumar, released in 1986.

The movie is being made under the banner Hari Mehrotra Productions, co-produced by Aman D Shah, executive producer Rajeev Dube, story by Rajeev Yogendranath and Hari Mehrotra, dialogues are penned by Hari Mehrotra, Abdullah Khan and Ziaullah Khan, music by Siddhant Madhav, cinematography Sayyed Johny Lal, edited by Ashish Gayker, art director Subodh Kumar, executive producer Rajeev Dubey and the film is directed by Ziaullah Khan.

Hari Mehrotra informed that his maiden venture Viraam has taken place in 56 International Film Festivals including ‘Cannes Film Festival’. In fact, it’s a big achievement for Hari Mehrotra and his unit. he deserves KUDOS for this.

“Mr. Puneet Pasricha is the President – Institutional Business & Corporate Strategy at Liberty Videocon General Insurance Co. Ltd., which started operating in 2013. He has been one of the key members of the startup team of this joint venture, serving as the key contact person to build and manage relationships with the joint venture partner and the Indian Insurance Regulator. From successfully setting up the company ground up in India, and heading its operations and customer experience vertical, to now overseeing the P&L of Institutional Business with an additional portfolio of Corporate Strategy, it has been a successful journey for Puneet so far. His peers in the industry (who endearingly call him “Pasha”) acknowledge the sheer ease with which he has successfully implemented successful global business operation models in the Indian context. Secret of his success, as he himself describes it – “it’s the honest and basic ground work which matters”

Here’s is a snippet of the interaction with Mr. Puneet Pasricha on multitude of subject matters relevant to the insurance fraternity at large.

Question: You were extremely well settled in US and your career was zooming high, what made you come back to India?

Answer: After cutting my teeth with a wide variety of management roles in New Businesses, Strategy & Business Planning, Mergers & Acquisition and Operations Management, I was looking out for a more challenging assignment. As they say, opportunities are best created. Going by that rule, I drew up the India entry strategy plan for Liberty, put across the idea to the senior management and got the approval. The sheer enormity of the Indian opportunity and the ability of Liberty to take a substantial position in the Indian market struck the right chord with the then Chairman of Liberty Mutual, and he gave us the thumbs up to go ahead and write the Liberty India story. Building the road map and chalking out the entry of Global Conglomerate – Liberty Mutual in the Sub Continent was a really cherishing experience.

Question: If you had to sum up the Liberty India set up experience, how would you state that?

Answer: WhenI look back at those eventful years, the only thought which strikes my mind is “Well begun is half done”, that was the essence and the ingredient for the seamless execution and set up of the Liberty Videocon operation. It has given me some extremely outstanding exposure and everlasting learnings as a professional.

I was inherently instrumental in setting up the joint venture, Liberty Videocon General Insurance Company Limited, serving as the key contact person to build and manage relationships with our joint venture partner and the Indian Insurance Regulator. Once the core management team was in place, I moved on to establish the Operations and Customer Experience vertical. The highpoint in this set up journey came in when we were felicitated for our Consumer Centricity by ETIG group, in the second year of our operation.

Question: Tell us something about the new role and the recent elevation?

Answer: I have always had the itch for venturing into new untried territories to figure out the method in the madness and make it a success in my own way. The recent elevation as the President of Institutional Business & Head of Corporate Strategy is another step in this direction for me. As an entity, we have been gearing up for the next phase of exponential growth, and the recent role elevation has been in line with that objective. Along with this, I am one of the thought leaders for Digital development and Innovation for the Liberty Mutual Group. This is an area I am passionate about and as part of the Global Digital team I am leading some initiatives to explore new areas of disruption in the financial services space.

Answer: I firmly believe that customer is at the core of any product or service that is existing or the one that existed in the market. All my career has revolved around Insurance which is all about understanding people, their lifestyle and their exposure to and understanding of various risks. Hence as a corollary to my interest in insurance domain, understanding customer behavior and attitudes too has become a critical area of interest.

The starting point to this tenet is the acknowledgement that- Customer Experience & Customer Service are two distinctly different things. In most cases, a customer’s first point of contact with a company is usually through interacting with an employee (either by visiting a branch or by speaking on the phone). This gives your business an opportunity to deliver excellent customer service.

However, customer service is only one aspect of the entire customer experience. For example, if you book a vacation on the phone and the person you are speaking with is friendly and helpful, that’s good customer service. Yet, if your tickets arrive early and the hotel upgrades your room, then that’s a good customer experience. That’s how the two are different!

Like most things in today’s market place, customer experience has changed – it’s more than person-to-person service and thanks to technology, companies can connect with their customers in new and exciting ways. For example, you can view customer purchase history and to predict future needs even before the customer knows they need it.

One needs a “disciplined focus on end-to-end value streams to deliver what customers’ want, when they want it, to the standard they expect, and nothing less”. If companies are able to get this approach right they would have then curated the perfect customer experience and transformed their Customers to Fans.

Question: What is your view on low retention and renewal ratio in the industry and what has been your observation as an industry participant to improve upon this at an industry level?

Answer: The environment in which the industry has been operating is a hybrid of traditional and modern practices. Intermediaries control a huge chunk of our business. At the same time with advent of internet, new age customers are also opting for direct interaction with the insurance companies through aggregators or through the company websites. The challenge for insurance companies is with traditional channel where contactibility of customers is limited as the intermediaries are the face of the insurance company. We need to take steps to make a win – win model between customers, intermediary and insurers with use of technology. Digital and internet of things is one such domain through which a lot of things would change in immediate future. I strongly believe that it has potential to resolve lot of service standardization issue and hence also resolve lot of problems related to renewals and retention of customers.

An integrated loyalty strategy in an organization is the only way to achieve a high degree of success. This requires in-depth customer segmentation since customer expectations varies basis demographics like age, income as well as with geography. Treating every customer in a cookie cutter fashion does not work today; a customer expects to be treated basis her share of wallet with a brand. A craving for personalized experience is becoming a norm.

We have to better understand the Moments of Truth for customers. The proliferation of so many touch points today is in fact a bigger challenge for the companies to meet customers’ expectations while engaging and creating that sought-after emotional bond with them. Moreover, it’s not just the channels for interaction and transaction that is altering but the number of interactions is also increasing.

Therefore, to make the right impact at the moment of truth across all these channels, companies need to be insightful and have an understanding of the interactions that customers have there. Getting it right would strengthen customer loyalty, increase brand advocacy and escalate profitability. In other words, R3 (Retention, Repurchase and Referral), the only way forward to have this tryst is “Collecting and analyzing consumer data is the path towards personalization, increased engagement, and differentiation”

Question: What is your view on the changing customer behavior and preferences?

Answer: Today’s customer is an evolved customer who is well researched about the available choices and as a part of the industry, I strongly feel that we need to fulfill customer’s expectation at every interaction and transaction, which we term as the Moments of Truth. Purchases of non-life insurance products in India are mainly driven by convenience and value — in other words, the right product at the right price. Convenience, however, is a complex proposition. Customers must be able to research and buy easily, a trend that has primarily been driven by the growth of online websites. But convenience also implies avoiding problems later — with cover, service or technology. For this reason, some customers still rely on tried and tested channels such as agents, family advice or trusted brands to guide their purchasing decisions.

Question: As one of the stalwart from the General Insurance Industry Perspective how would you describe the entire narrative and its evolution?

The General Insurance (GI) industry in India has evolved significantly over the last decade and is now at a watershed in its development. From a Rs. 12,000 crore premium level in 2001–02, today the total Gross written premium is at Rs.100,000 crore, clocking an annual growth rate of 17%. GI is a major contributor to the country’s economy. It effectively pools and transfers risk from individual and corporate consumers, thus encouraging investments and driving GDP growth. It supports the government and society by reinvesting funds and sharing the cost of catastrophes. The industry is also a major contributor to employment.

If I were to look closely on the key trends shaping the General Insurance, it could be

 Global forces impacting India’s insurance industry

 Changing customer behaviour and expectations

 Shifting demand- supply dynamics in related sectors

Mainly China, India and Southeast Asia—is expected to become the most important playing field for global insurers. These countries will account for around 35% of total growth. This will result in heightened competitive interest from a range of foreign insurers, who look to India as a major source of growth. Along with that there are technology discontinuities such as Big Data, Mobility, Social Media, Cloud, which will allow for more sophisticated business models to emerge.

The increase in the consumer awareness and involvement, and the increasing blurring of lines on the online and the offline world with demonstrated multichannel behaviour- e.g. 60–70% of online users conduct digital research before purchasing any financial services product; two-thirds change their mind about the product and brand after online research.

Also, quite evidently the shifting demand -supply dynamics in related sectors such as

Health care- Rapid increase in healthcare spend and formalization and corporatization of provider space will lead to new opportunities.

Auto- Pressure on core sales margin and ageing of car PARC will result in heightened focus of OEMs/dealers for insurance pools.

Question: As the President of the Institutional Business and Corporate Strategy what are the 3 big accomplishments

It’s been less than a year that I have taken over the new role so to outline 3 major achievements may not be appropriate. However, I have focused on some key areas to get the building blocks in place which will propel the team toward success.

Creating a learning environment: mental stimulation is what drives intelligent and ambitious employees. I have tried to create this by giving them an opportunity to access training materials, try their hand at new techniques and practice these in the real world.

Recognition: You can’t progress without recognizing great performers.

Autonomy and Empowerment: Besides giving the employees clarity about what they need to do, you must also give them the freedom and independence to get the job done on their own.

Welcome a new entrant in the prolix list of Bollywood artist Suman Negi, who is not merely talented and beautiful, but also is competent, dedicated and hardworking, in short, filmmakers first choice. Hailing from Mollywood Regional Film Industry, In a jiffy, Suman vanquished Haryanvi cinema, delivering hits after hits in a row like Dhakkad Chhora, Buddhuram, Gadbad Ghotala, Karmveer and others.

After ruling regional cinema, Suman debuted in producer Subir Mukherjee’s Hindi film Club Dancer, wherein her performance was highly appreciated for which she gave credit to producer of the movie Subir Mukherjee and director Sandeep Kumar.

Now she is ready to make a mark in Parchhaye-The Shadow, which is ready for release, being directed by Sandeep Kumar.

The film is produced by Kiran Kumar Titoriya, who has an eye to search fresh talents and Suman Negi is one of his discovery, whom he gave a platform of big screen to showcase her talent for Dhakkad Chhora, (Haryanvi) a smash-hit, being produced under his banner ‘Subookiran Productions Pvt Ltd’.

Besides acting skills and sensational looks, Suman is also a very good dancer which is also a plus point to soar her career.

On account of all these qualities, Suman is compared to Sunny Leone as Suman can also execute sultry scenes as per requirement of the script.

Apart from Parchhaye-The Shadow, Suman’s other forthcoming release is Beimaan Aashiq, which is also produced by Kiran Kumar Titoriya. It’s very amazing that both the artist who have been kept under contrast, alphabetically their name begins from letter S. Likewise, Suman’s forthcoming film is titled Beimaan Aashiq as Sunny Leone has Beimaan Love to her credit.

Talking about Beimaan Aashiq, Suman described it as a suspense thriller in which she plays a powerful role opposite Yatin Chhadha. The rest of the cast includes Prithvi Zutshi, Shehzad and others, written and directed by Sandeep Kumar. The film is readied for release shortly.

“You made a name in Mollywood and today you are also a part and parcel of Bollywood movies? “I am grateful to the people who supported me to consolidate my career without whom I couldn’t have reach the place where I am today, specially my producers Kiran Kumar Titoriya, Subir Mukherjee and director Sandeep Kumar.”When she was questioned about her ambition, Suman smiles “I am here to stay, as not the sky but the space is the limit for me, Suman uttered’.

Till date, whatever success Suman has gained in regional cinema, undoubtedly, she indicates to achieve the same in Hindi film industry also.

At a glittering auction held on Monday, the 24th April held at Sofitel Hotel at BKC in Mumbai, which witnessed the bidding for players for the Ten Franchisees of the UCB (United Cricket Bash) Fahim Batliwala announced that the month of May would provide the Mumbaites with an unique sporting event filled with sportsman spirit, fun and glamour of the Bollywood with the message of physical fitness much needed for the youth of today.

A gala 18 days sporting event kick-starts from 1st May in Lokhandwala amidst the presence of Bollywood Celebrities promoted by Simca Advertising.

Head of one of the most respected Corporate Houses in Bollywood, Fahim Batliwala of Simca Advertising has come up with the novel idea of United Cricket Bash League. It comprises 10 power packed teams showcasing their talent and sporting skill spread over 14 days of high energy action amidst Bollywood presence to be played at Jankidevi Sports Ground in JVPD.

The matches would be telecast live on YouTube as well as through 7 Star Digital Cable network Channel No: 100 which would be a dedicated channel telecasting the cricket matches live. ——–Wasim Siddique (Fame Media Publicity)